I was surprised how far the moon really is in relation to its size and that of the planet earth. If the earth was the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of a tennis ball, 21 feet (6.4 meters) away!

The distances in between the planets in our solar system is even more staggering!

If we downsize the planet earth even further to about the size of a small 1/8" inch (3mm) plastic bead... the sun would be the size of a bowling ball... which would be 93 feet (28.3 meters) away!

Jupiter being the largest planet would be about the size of a regular lollipop, 484 feet (147.5 meters) away from the bowling ball.
Slightly smaller, Saturn would be about the size of a glass marble, 886 feet (270 meters) from the bowling ball.
Uranus about the size of a large pea, is 1800 feet (548.6 meters) from the bowling ball.
Neptune about the size of a mini marble is half a mile (0.8 of a kilometer) away from the bowling ball.

Boy, I really got it wrong when I helped my kids build a solar system model for their school project, lol!

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